Customer Reviews

Wilson Electronics Cell Phone Signal Booster Kit for Vehicle with Low Profile Antenna - For Multiple Users

5 star:		(25)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

My job requires me to travel throughout most of the southest and there are ALOT of areas with little to no cellular coverage. Since my vehicle is my office I also need my Cellular Aircard to work for internet purposes and to connect to our company database. I carry a company phone(Verizon Blackberry) and my personal phone(at&t iPhone) incase one doesn't work hopefully the other one will. My wife finally got tired of our conversations getting dropped and me complaining so much that she ordered a Cellular Amplifier from another online vendor(not a Wilson). I didn't even know these things existed until she suprised me one weekend when I came home. Man was I excited.....so I took everything out of the package and began reading the instructions to learn about how this unit operated and how it should be installed. I have somewhat of a 12volt background and am quite skilled in car audio installation and knew installation was going to be a breeze.....but for those that are not aware most of these units actually just plug into the car 12v outlet for power and you just plug in the outside antenna and the inside antenna to the amp and your done...but with my background I wanted it to be more permanant. Before I decided to mount everything I decided to use it the next week and make sure everything worked properly. BOY WAS I GLAD I DID!! This unit made it look like it I had full bars all over but as my week went on I noticed the dropped calls didn't go away and actually they seemed to be worse. Once home that next weekend I started my research about the different amplifiers on the market and I visited many of the different companies websites. That's when I came across the Wilson 801201. Having remembered Wilson from the CB days as the best CB Antenna Manufacturer out there I figured their quality would trickle down to their other products. I luckily was able to return the other brand amp and once that was handled I called Wilson Electronics and talked to their tech support to get their recomendations. I explained to them what problems I was having and they recommended what I needed. So once we got the Wilson kit in and I opened the box I could see the quality difference just in the product itself. Again I decided to use it for the next week before I fully installed everything. I was pleasantly suprised during my 1st day that my drop call problem was almost non-existant. Not only did both my phones show more bars my aircard actually worked in places its never worked before and at faster speeds. I didn't realize it would help my download speeds but it does. I might have had 1 or 2 dropped calls over the last 2 months but thats nothing compared to 10 a day like before. This amp has greatly exceeded my expectations and I tell everyone about it. I'm proof that there are others out there but when it comes to the best nothing competes with a Wilson amp.

This was a fine product and did all it said. I needed mine at camp, because of poor signal. This unit raised my signal two to three bars..... When I really needed signal I put the phone next to the antenna and got full bar everytime!I search all over and amazon was the cheeapest.

My job requires me to travel between PA, NY, CT, MA, NH & ME almost weekly. The ability to talk to clients while traveling is essential in my line of work. Pulling over at a rest stop to 'hold' a call is often not an option and a HUGE waste of time!

Now that I have +3,000 road miles and countless conversations using this device, I thought I would write a review for others 'considering' this setup. Also worth mentioning, I average between 2,500 - 3,500 cell minutes per month to give you some idea how much I use a cell phone throughout the states I mentioned.

The benefits of this device are amazing yet obvious so I won't bore you with my praises. Rather, I thought I would provide a highlight of cell network problems you will likely continue to experience with the Wilson repeater. I suspect one or more of the items I mentioned below is the primary culprit behind a few of the negative reviews this device.

- This device is a "signal booster". It will do an excellent job in areas of very weak signal. However it cannot reproduce signal where none exists.

- Distance between your phone and the Wilson internal antenna has a direct impact on signal strength and performance. Ideally, your phone should remain within 6" (12" max) of the internal antenna for best performance in weak areas. The manufacturer states 24" but this distance will not yield the best performance in weak areas. If you live in a "Hands Free" state, it's likely your phone already has a home in the center console. Mount the Wilson antenna as close as possible to this area. If you hold a phone in a traditional manner, mount the antenna on the side of the headrest. Either location should place the antenna within distances I recommended.

- An active call on a 3G network cell tower will not pass a call to an older 'EDGE' cell tower. The same is true vise versa. The Wilson repeater 'may' lessen this effect simply because the amplification is strong enough to reach the next available 3G cell tower. If not, your call will be dropped. I have ATT but assume the same is true for Verizon and Sprint 3G networks.

- Roaming Networks & State Lines. Most of us experience areas where a call is dropped every time for no apparent reason. Often times this is because you have traveled into a partner/roaming network. Certain towers/providers are not setup to hand off active calls between networks. Again, the Wilson repeater cannot correct an infrastructure issue.

- This device, like any amplifier consumes power. It will drain your battery. Plug the amp into a 12v power outlet switched with the key (ignition).

Overall, I am delighted with this device and would buy one again in a heartbeat.

TIP 1: For people with two cars but cannot afford to purchase two repeaters: Buy a second set of antennas and power supply. I move the amp from my car to truck in less than 5 minutes (no tools).

Tip 2: Dirt will eventually work its way under the magnetic antenna base and scratch your paint. Adhere a small piece of clear tape to the car to keep this from happening. I cut mine in a slightly larger circle and you can hardly tell it's there.

We live too far into the north woods for cell coverage at home, that is "no service". Our nearest metropolis of 2100 people is 12 miles away with a cell tower nearby. With the Wilson booster installed and the interior antenna velcroed to a headrest, the system lets us make calls from our driveway--service with a couple bars signal strength. However, the velcro likes to fall off the headrest and you really need it that close for the system to work. I wish the interior antenna had a little more gain so that it could work throughout the inside of the vehicle with one convenient location. The exterior antenna is a mag-mount and works fine since we have no sunroof in our Suburban. I keep the unit under the back seat and route power and antenna wires there. The cigarette lighter power unit has a switch on it, but even off it drained the battery overnight. I blame this on the power supply because that has never happened before and never happened again as long as I unplugged it when parking the vehicle. There is no question that this unit works, but I am not 100% satisfied as noted above.

I have a Blackberry Storm and was disappointed that it did not have an external antenna port.
We take our RV to remote places and like the ability of being able to access both the Internet and make Cell calls.
We also live in a Rural area in Minnesota and I am often driving our car in weak cell strength areas.
I am a Verizon customer primarily because of their extensive coverage.

Being a past customer of Wilson Electronics for Cell antennas for my cars and RV's over the years, I called and talked with their Tech Support staff looking for advice on being able to increase signal strength to my Storm.
They were excellent and very helpful.
They suggested this package to help solve my issues.

I connect the Wilson Amp to their Trucker antenna when in the RV.
And I use the 12" antenna in this package in our car.
I have found it is fairly quick to move the amp between the RV and car.

I have been in several places where there was no signal without the amp but have been able to get 2-3 bars with it.
Of course there are places where no matter where what you do, there is just no signal available to amplify.
But I am confident if one is available, I can use it.

This unit comes with a "Hersey bar" antenna that goes inside the car.
I have found that the best way to use it with the Storm is to Velcro it to the antenna.
I also Velcro the antenna to my dash and just pull the antenna cell phone combination off to use and make calls.
I have also found that I can use this combination to tether my cell to my computer and use it as a data modem.

Perhaps the only thing that would be better for my situation is to have a smaller Hershey bar antenna that would just fit the back of the Storm or iPhone.
(Although I understand they have developed a unit just for the iPhone)

I have been consistently pleased with Wilson Electronics products.
They have been durable and long lasting.
I have recommended them to friends without hesitation as well.

I work from my truck and work in many rural locations. After installing the booster areas that I have never had service in will have 5 or six bars in now. I have found that for the best reception, use a bluetooth and set the phone within a couple of inches from the antenna. I used velcro to attach to the front of my seat and set the phone on the seat. It makes it nice if I need to be outside my vehicle in a remote area and can still use the phone. At my hunting camp everyone wants to stand next to my truck so they can use their phones. None of us have any service without the booster. I no exactly where the spots are on I-65 without the antenna and never drop a call in those spots with the booster. I cant say enough about how well it works.

So far it's working as stated as it would. I bought it for my boyfriend who works in the oil field and we live up in the western part of ND so signals can be bad. He is able to get signal where he didn't before and call out. Also, call quality is better after hooking up to the booster. I am thinking of getting one for my house as I use an aircard for my internet and signal can be erratic in my house.

I bought this thinking it would cover my whole RV, after all it says for multiple users, however you have to have you cell phone between 8 and 12 inches from the flat antenna...which makes it's use really limited. It does seem to boost my signal by 1 or 2 bars, but being with in 8 to 12 inches of the interior antenna is really hard. I find I use my ear buds for phone calls and set the phone near the antenna...not really what I had in mind. Amazon has done us no favors taking out the spec's tab on their web pages.

I have to say that I am super impressed with the Wilson Electronics Cell Phone Signal Booster! I work in RF electronics for a living and understand the principle of operation of this device very well. However; I didn't expect it to work as well as it does in my area, being a very rural setting with very few cell sites provided by my carrier. I used to have a about 20 miles of dead zone between my place of work and home, and now I get a rock solid cell signal and reasonable data service the entire way with my iPhone 4.
I have the external antenna mounted 18 inches in from the side of the roof of my car and 18 inches forward of the back glass. It is not centerline in either direction, but has a pretty decent ground plane regardless and is at least 20 inches from my on-star antenna. I have a phone mount that I modified so that the "hershey bar" antenna is about an inch away from the phone and get the best reception (nearly full bars in what was a dead zone) when the phone is in the mount (blue tooth car). I can use the phone just fine in what were 1 or 2 bar area's with the phone two feet or so from the mount and with an almost full signal. If you use your phone hands free a lot and just want to keep it in a cradle, I would opt for the Wilson cradle with the built in antenna, otherwise, just make sure your inside antenna is nice and close to your phone. It would be nice not to have a distance limit like that, but if the gain of the inside antenna were any greater, the whole system would oscillate (feedback) and it wouldn't work. It's the same reason you must keep the inside and outside antennas as far apart as possible. If you follow the manual or need help and call wilson, do exactly as they say and you shouldn't have any problems. Also, if you use anything to extend the antenna cable length, make sure there are no breaks or shorts in the lines. I had a faulty crimp on an FME connector on an extension cable I made myself and I would get full bars on my phone, but would quickly get a "no service" warning when I would power up the booster. I would purchase a premade, RG58 extension cable with the connectors already attached if I needed more length and didn't know what I were doing.

Also, Wilson will really work to make you happy and get things working for you if you are having problems!

I bought this for my boyfriend. He drives a water tanker for the gas drilling going on in PA/NY. It works great and has improved his signal greatly,so much so that his boss bought more for the other trucks.